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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2014
Vol. 2 Edition 44
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Lest we forget Local man called to the bar 96 years after he died in battle
By Bruce Corcoran bruce@chathamvoice.com
Matthew Maurice “Sonny” Wilson, son of a prominent Chatham lawyer, will be posthumously called to the bar himself Nov. 11, 96 years after he died. Sonny died in combat in the First World War, a month before it ended. He and about 60 others who died in the Great War are to receive honourary calls to the bar at the Law Society of Upper Canada’s Remembrance Day ceremony this year. All were in law school when they went off to fight. None of them came home alive. Sonny’s picture hangs in Osgoode Hall. It is what ultimately brought separate branches of the Wilson family back together. Geoff Hall, a grandneph-
ew to Sonny, said Lindey Wilson, an unknown relative to him, yet someone who also lived in Chatham, saw the name on the plaque below Sonny’s picture, and the gears started turning. She began to look into her ancestry to see if they were part of the same family tree. “One day there was this woman banging on my front door, saying that we’re related,” Geoff said. That was Lindey. “The nice thing about it is, 100 years later, we now have another family that we’re attached to. We didn’t have that before,” Geoff said. Searching the family roots has become contagious too. Geoff said younger Wilsons are caught up in learning about their heritage after learning of the Sonny Wilson story. “There’s a sense of con-
tinuity and attachment to the past. There’s an old saying that if you don’t know where you’re from, you don’t know where you’re going,” he said. “One person’s action can also affect someone 100 years down the road.” Looking back on history can dispel family myths as well. Geoff said Sonny’s tale led to another about the sidearm he carried into battle. “There was kind of a romantic story about his revolver – his mother had taken it up on one of the bridges (over the Thames River) and flung it off into the river so it would never kill again,” he said. “It was bunk. We ended up with that thing in our basement. It used to just sit wrapped in a cloth down in our basement when we were kids.”
Chapple is the Royal Canadian Legion Br. 628 representative to Parkwood Hospital in London, specifically the Veteran’s Care Program. She said there are currently 160 veterans at the hospital, and she tries to reach out, find their needs and fill them the best she can, utilizing money from Br. 628’s poppy fund.
Money from the poppy fund also goes to help veterans living in Chatham-Kent, she added. In regards to aiding the Parkwood veterans, Chapple said the Legion’s poppy committee provides her with “an amount of money to spend on items the veterans need or want.” Harry Warner, first
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Bruce Corcoran/The Chatham Voice
Geoff Hall shows off a photo of his late great-uncle Sonny Wilson, who died with a month to go in the First World War. Those are the field glasses that Sonny, an officer, used in the war.
Wonder where your poppy money goes?
By Bruce Corcoran bruce@chathamvoice.com
Sharon Chapple is very proud of her volunteer work, helping make life a little easier for about 160 people. It can be as simple as handing them a fleece vest, a sweater, a pack of razors or even a box of tissues.
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vice-president at the Legion and head of the poppy committee, said the communication process is very simple. “She made a list for us and we tried to fill it,” Warner said, reminding everyone, “The poppy is a symbol of remembrance for those who have fallen in all conflicts.” The Br. 628 efforts result-
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ed in Chapple taking a vehicle load full of clothing and toiletries to Parkwood last week. Chapple said the Legion tries to help out the veterans at Parkwood for Christmas as well, as she’ll ask them for a wish list, and then tries to fill it. “We make Christmas gift packages. Whatever they ask for,” she said.
“It’s care and comfort for our veterans,” Warner said. Chapple said their idea is to help veterans who need it. “You don’t have to be a member of the Legion. You just have to be a veteran,” she said. “You just have to have served in uniform.”
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